Who Is Matt Weiss? All about the former NFL, Michigan assistant coach charged with hacking for athletes’ 'intimate photos'

A former NFL and college football coach was charged in a 24-count indictment with accessing the digital accounts of 3,300 students to download their intimate photos and videos. The federal authorities say that the 42-year-old former University of Michigan co-offensive coordinator hacked into computers at more than 100 universities.

Weiss's alleged crimes spanned from 2015-2023, and authorities say he is accused of downloading confidential information of more than 150,000 student-athletes, targeting mostly female college athletes.
According to the indictment, Weiss accessed a database managed by a third party that had information on student-athletes from more than 100 colleges and universities across the country. He is alleged to have done so "through compromising the passwords" of staff members with elevated access to the database.

As per the indictment, "After gaining access to these databases, Weiss downloaded the personally identifiable information (PII) and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes.”
The indictment revealed that Weiss cracked the encryption protecting the athletes' passwords and conducted further research to "obtain personal information such as their mothers’ maiden names, pets, places of birth, and nicknames."
Using all of that information, Weiss either reset or guessed the passwords of 2,000 students, the indictment says. It alleges he targeted the social media, email, and cloud storage accounts of female student-athletes.
According to the indictment, "Once he obtained access to the accounts of targeted athletes, Weiss searched for and downloaded personal, intimate photographs and videos that were not publicly shared.”
Weiss was also able to access the private accounts of 1,300 students or alumni who attended institutions around the country, as per the indictment. It says, "In at least several instances, Weiss exploited vulnerabilities in universities’ account authentication processes to gain access to the accounts of students or alumni.”

The indictment added, "Through this scheme, unknown to account holders, Weiss downloaded personal, intimate digital photographs and videos. His goal was to obtain private photographs and videos never intended to be shared beyond intimate partners."
It also alleges that "Weiss kept notes on individuals whose photographs and videos that he viewed, including notes commenting on their bodies and sexual preferences."

Matthew Weiss, more widely known as Matt Weiss is an American football coach who most recently was the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines. A native of Connecticut, he played college football for Vanderbilt and then served as a coach in multiple capacities for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL).


Born in Cheshire, the Connecticut native attended Hopkins School, where he graduated in 2001. Weiss played baseball and football for his high school, where as the quarterback, he led his team to a 12-0 record, the first time this had been achieved at this school, as well as winning the school’s first New England Prep School Class C championship in 2001.
Weiss then went on to attend Vanderbilt University, earning a bachelor's degree in economics and human and organizational development.
A double major in English and economics, he was a walk-on third-string punter for the Vanderbilt Commodores from 2001 to 2003. However, Weiss never played in a game at Vanderbilt and was not included on the Sports Reference final roster in the years he attended the university.
While working as a graduate assistant at Stanford he earned a master's degree in liberal arts in 2008.


Weiss was hired at the University of Michigan in 2021 after 12 seasons as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Ravens, according to his university biography. Before that, he worked at Stanford University.
In 2023, Weiss, who worked for former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and also his brother, John, head coach with the Baltimore Ravens, was placed on administrative leave from his position and subsequently fired after the University of Michigan's police department began investigating him for a computer crime.

Although much is not known about Weiss’ personal life, it is known that Matt is married and has kids as well. He shares three children - a son and two daughters - with his wife Melissa.